Wholesale hazelnut prices have surged this harvest season due to frost damage in Türkiye, the world's leading producer, where the crop yields are expected to shrink this year.
In April, a cold snap, unseen in years, affected a variety of domestically produced crops, pushing hazelnut prices higher even before the harvest began.
Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumaklı called it one of the worst agricultural frosts in the country's history. Experts have attributed it to climate change, which they claim is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, as the underlying cause.
According to the Amsterdam-based commodity data platform Vesper BV, a metric ton of Turkish hazelnuts now costs around 9,400 euros ($10,900), an increase of roughly 34% since the start of the year, Vesper told Deutche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
Around 60% of the world's hazelnuts grow primarily on the green mountain slopes along Türkiye's Black Sea coast, where the nut is called "green gold" because of its economic importance. Major global chocolatiers such as Italy's Ferrero source their nuts from this region.
Hamburg trading house Schluter & Maack estimates that wholesale prices for Turkish hazelnuts have risen by approximately 40% since the cold snap, according to a report by dpa, published on Sunday.
Still, surpluses from previous harvests and good yields in other producing countries have partly offset the losses.
In Türkiye, the state grain board raised the minimum purchase price for hazelnuts just days ago. For the 2025-2026 season, it set the price at TL 195 ($4.80) per kilogram.
The last major frost-related event, before April, affecting crops in Türkiye, occurred in 2014. Following the frost this year, which took place in dozens of provinces across the country, even the central bank warned of a temporary increase in food prices due to the impact of the cold weather.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), in its assessment published in May, also estimated that fruit, beverage, and spice crop production will be 21.4 million tons in 2025, with a 24.4% decrease compared to the previous year.
This has raised concerns among producers of chocolate-hazelnut products, as prices for these goods have also been rising for some time. Accompanied by earlier hikes in global prices of other goods, including cocoa and coffee, the chocolatiers are closely following the shifts in the market.
The production of cocoa was particularly at risk last year as drought hit major producers in West Africa.
Price comparison app smhaggle reviewed four well-known products in the category for the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. Its analysis found that since 2022, prices in the country have climbed by 10% to 65%, in some cases outpacing the average rate of price increases.
The price surge is hitting companies that also source expensive cocoa especially hard, such as Germany's Ritter Sport, maker of the iconic square chocolate bars.
Ritter Sport processes several thousand tons of hazelnuts annually, mostly from Türkiye's Black Sea coast and partly from the U.S.
A company spokesperson said the frosts in Türkiye and rising prices have had a tangible impact on Ritter Sport. "We are seeing a massive double burden on the raw materials side," he said, adding that the strain was not expected to ease up in the future.
The price hikes will likely hit the world's largest hazelnut buyer the hardest: Nutella-maker Ferrero, which is estimated to source about one-third of all hazelnuts globally.
The Italian company declined to comment on prices when asked, but denies any supply disruptions. The company said it sources hazelnuts not only from Türkiye but also Italy, Chile, and the U.S., which ensures supply security.
